Ford Ireland has provided an all-new Transit Van to help with the valuable work of the Bia Ford Initiative.

In Ireland, almost a million tonnes of perfectly good food is disposed of each year. And yet, people go hungry every day in Ireland and charitable organisations spend over €10 million each year on food.

However, Cork-based charity, the Bia Food Initiative, is tackling this mountain of waste by harnessing this surplus food and re-directing it to those in need.  Through a national network of food redistribution centres, the Bia Food Initiative is hoping to become a one-stop-shop for food businesses to donate their surplus food and grocery products in a fast, efficient and safe way while reducing their disposal costs and making a very positive and practical contribution to the communities in which these businesses operate.  The Bia Food Initiative will then pass on the surplus food to charitable groups around the country, helping them to reduce their current spend on food so they can focus all their resources on their core activities.

Karen Horgan, Project Manager of the Bia Food Initiative said: “We are hugely indebted to Ford for the provision of the New Transit van – it will really help with our work in redistributing the surplus food that we collect from food retailers and producers across the country”.

Eddie Murphy, Chairman and Managing Director of Ford Ireland, said: “We feel that the Bia Food Initiative is such a worthy cause, it is crazy that so much food is wasted when 1 in 10 people in Ireland suffer from food poverty today. We knew that the Transit, as Ireland’s favourite van, would be the ideal vehicle to help with the valuable work of Karen and her teams across the country”.

The Bia Food Initiative has just opened its first pilot distribution centre in Cork.  The distribution centre has a warehouse with refrigerated and freezer units and will act as the hub for storing food prior to shipment to the organisation’s redistribution centres around Ireland.

The van supplied to the Bia Food Initiative is an All-New Ford Transit Jumbo 125PS 6 speed  Van, including full insulation and a Thermo King Chiller Unit with a highly efficient 2.2 litre TDCi diesel engine.